Interest, objects and learning

Interest allows for correct and complete recognition of an object, leads to meaningful learning, promotes long-term storage of knowledge, and provides motivation for further learning. Dewey holds that apart from effort, interest is required for meaningful learning to occur without the need for coercion.

Interest-based learning is characterised by a sense of pleasure arising from the activity and from satisfying one’s psychological needs (Schiefele, 1992: 151).

The creation of interest needs a situation-specific interaction between person and the object. There are two types of interest (Schiefele, 1991: 302):

Situational: emerges in response to situational cues.

Individual: a deeper interest that develops over time and resides with the person.

Individual is conceived of as relatively enduring preference for certain topics, subject areas or activities. Situational: is an emotional state brought about by

situational stimuli. A person in a state of being interested in a certain topic wants to learn about that topic for its own sake. Findings suggest that subject matter interest has a stronger and more consistent impact on the quality of experience in class than do achievement, motivation or ability (Schiefele, 1991:

314).

Krapp, Hidi, and Renninger (1992) have identified three conceptualizations of interest which play an important role in contemporary discussions on motivation and interest: (1) interest as a dispositional characteristic of the person, (2) interest as a characteristic of the learning environment (interestingness), and (3) interest as a psychological state (Krapp, 1999: 24).

Figure 2-1.Psychological State Determinants (Krapp, 1999)

Adapted from Krapp, 1999.

This idea is variously referred to as "person-object-relationship". It is important to realize that research on individual interest is mainly concerned with the subjective side of the "person-object-relationship" (Krapp, 1999: 25). A person will only engage continuously in a certain topic area or object of interest if he or she assesses it as sufficiently important andif he or she experiences the course of interactions on the whole as positive and emotionally satisfactory.

In Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Deci and Ryan (1985) distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated behaviors, which are performed out of interest and satisfy the innate psychological needs for competence and autonomy, are the prototype of self-determined behavior.

Extrinsically motivated behaviours can vary in the extent to which they represent self-determination.

Their approach centers primarily on psychological needs namely, the innate needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness which are the basis for one maintaining intrinsic motivation and becoming more self-determined with respect to extrinsic motivation (Ryan and Deci, 2000: 65). However, they naturally recognize that basic need satisfaction ensues in part from engaging in interesting activities. They at times speak of intrinsically interesting activities, but when they do so they are really only talking about tasks that, on average, many people find to be intrinsically interesting (Ryan and Deci, 2000: 56). If students are free to return to the activity, it is assumed that, if there is no extrinsic reason to do the task (no reward or no approval), then the more time they spend with the target task, the more intrinsically motivated they are for it.

Since most of the tasks that educators want their students to perform are generally not inherently interesting or enjoyable, knowing how to promote more active and volitional (versus passive and controlling) forms of extrinsic motivation becomes an essential strategy for successful teaching. Choice and the opportunity for self-direction appear to enhance intrinsic motivation, as they afford a greater sense of autonomy. Several studies have shown that autonomy-supportive (in contrast to controlling) teachers catalyze in their students greater intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and the desire for challenge (ibid).

Learning, in the sense of building (‘constructing’) knowledge and understanding, is a combination of cognition, motivation and interests. Not only motivation, but also interests have a great impact in the teaching (and the learning) process. On the person-object theory of interest (POI), Krapp (2007) states: “The empirical findings show that learning motivation based on interest tend to have many positive effects on the process and the results of learning”

(cited in Klingenberg, 2009: 2). Objects of interest can be a concrete thing, a topic, a subject-matter or even an abstract idea. The POI theory approach is based on “person-object-relation” characterized by feeling and value-related aspects (Krapp, 1999: 24).

At natural history dioramas children stop, look and interpret what they see, their attention captured by particular features. Such situational interest is central to learning, particularly in non-formal learning environments where

visitors may be regarded as free learners (Scheersoi, 2009: 10). Dioramas stimulate situational interest if they evoke emotional responses and provide different anchor points, which enable visitors with varying individual backgrounds to relate previous experiences to artefacts observed. Person-object-engagements with diorama may produce feelings of enjoyment, involvement and stimulation that are typical emotional aspects of interest-based activity. Situational interest arises from: recognition of familiar, young or big animals and the unexpected (Scheersoi, 2009: 12).

The use of animals in biological education has been a field of discussions since Comenius’ theorem “Lessons should begin with consideration of the real thing, instead of descriptions with words, after the thing has been shown, the teaching should follow to explain it” (Klingenberg, 2009: 6). Scientific instruction cannot replace everyday-experience with animals, which is a significant positive influence in building up elaborated concepts of animals. This means, that curricula and especially biological education should cover at least some of the issues regarding the fauna. It should be emphasized here, that supporting knowledge acquiring and attitude changing (towards a positive mentality), is more effective with animals than with other methods. The famous pedagogical reformer and school founder Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811) integrated animals in his teaching on every opportunity and stated “As a result of my long time experience, nothing catches children's attention as early (and as much) as animals” (Klingenberg, 2009: 9).